Posted - 09/20/2007 : 06:51:58 AM I hope someone else can relate to this. It seems like most of the time, when I finish knitting something, I end up feeling disappointed. It's not that there's anything wrong with the item or the pattern or anything, it's just that it's never quite as I envision it. I love, LOVE knitting, and I'm always excited about my projects. Then, when I'm all done, I try it on and... I don't know. It's hard to explain, but I feel sort of let down. I'm not sure if I'm too much of a perfectionist or what. Things often just hang funny or curl up funny or just aren't as I thought they would be. Does anyone else feel this way?? I think this is why I usually give my knitted stuff away.

Cheryl

20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)

PurlyPearl

Posted - 10/21/2007 : 4:26:35 PM I'm really glad to find this thread. It's nice to know I'm not alone in my frustration. I like the process of knitting but get impatient about reaching the "goal" of the finished product and having something new and fun to wear. As a result, I tend to get tired of long projects and start new ones all the time....now, where did all my knitting needles go? Anyway, I can certainly relate to the let-down of working so long on something and having it not end up looking how you wanted. I have a sweater that went wonky at the sleeves (my fault for forgetting a gauge adjustment at that point!), and now I'm so sick of trying to fix it that I want to hide it in the closet for a few years.[:-P]

For some reason, knitting clothing for myself from patterns has been a real challenge for me - Like so many, I'm not a "standard" size and it has been a challenge trying to adjust patterns to fit. My salvation has been an old weaving book ("Fashions From the Loom" by Betty Beard) that is a bit dated but has very simple patterns in it...for some reason those instructions are very clear and translate well to my knitting, and I can update the designs pretty easily.

Thankfully, I've always loved the results I get knitting scarves, socks, and other accessories. So, those are a mainstay for me when all else fails. And, for now the wonky sweater will stay in the closet while I try to muster some confidence with an easier pattern.

"Ravelry is a new site for knitters and crocheters that's taking that online, and adding an interesting Web spin with project management, and the creation of a massive directory of user shared patterns. The end result is a social network that doubles as a place to find new projects and talk to others who have done them." www.ravelry.com

I believe they have not gone public as yet and you have to request a membership (or an invitation) so you can be placed on their waiting list. One day you'll receive an invitation to join. I understand it's quite addictive.

mkfromKansas

Posted - 10/18/2007 : 10:21:57 AM I'm sorry to have to ask, but what is Ravelry? I'll take all the pre-disaster help I can find. Thanx for your empathy.

abt1950

Posted - 10/16/2007 : 07:56:13 AM mkfrom kansas, I feel your pain. After a few true disasters, I stopped knitting for almost a decade. But over time, they get fewer and you learn something every time.

One of my big problems is picking designs that will look good on me and not just on the model. Ravelry is a blessing for these kinds of issues. It won't tell you how you'll look in a specific project, but you can see the same design finished in lots of different yarns and on lots of different people with different figure types. I used to do a lot of googling to find pictures of finishe objects for designs I was interested in doing, but Ravelry makes it easier.

Not that there aren't still occasional surprises of the unpleasant kind, but it's another source of information to use in guiding future projects. And most things can be frogged if they're true disasters.

Anne in NJ

Knit long and prosper

mkfromKansas

Posted - 10/16/2007 : 07:29:08 AM I think you can talk gauge and swatches until you are blue in the face but still you never really know how the garment will look until it is worn. I am wearing my first finished wearable sweater and I can see when I make it again I will need to tighten up the neckline and make it about two inches longer. It's a bit frustrating to spend $50+ on yarn and not be sure right from the start that it will be a picture perfect garment. And what is doubly worse is when the problem is in a flawed pattern and not your flawed knitting. But then........we do knit on don't we?

MijTink

Posted - 10/15/2007 : 07:25:46 AM It's hard to admit, but I'm in a sort of slump which I'm guessing is secondary to disappointment? While I've been knitting a lot -even moreso than spinning- I look back over the past several months and see I've only completed a vest and a couple of caps. I cannot tell you how many projects I have started only to rip it and start something else. I'll even admit to frogging some yarn so often, I've had to toss it.

Allison summed it up beautifully! There comes a point early on in a project when we are able to sense it does not feel right, but what about when it feels as if NOTHING is going well -even the simplest projects? Over the years I've whipped through garment after garment, the more complex the better. Anything to challenge me. Now, I've done a ton of knitting and have nothing to show for it. On a positive note, however, the tactile gratification from knitting is still always good. Mostly.

I've always gotten over slumps easily; reorganizing my stash alone usually does it. This is a different though... while I normally become ecstatic over starting a new project, I'm beginning to associate gauge swatches and casting on with failure. That feels sad, because only we know what a major role knitting plays in our lives. However, since I've admitted this now, I think I have achieved my whining quota for the rest of the year. I shall think about how fortunate I am to have a stash and the needles to knit it on. Thank you for being there and letting me blow off some steam. Midge...

trosttribe@bellsouth.net

Posted - 09/30/2007 : 04:59:57 AM

quote:Originally posted by alliwenk

I've been knitting for quite a while and I think that you learn how to sense when a project is just not going to work. Sometimes it's the pattern, sometimes the wool, etc. I recently started a cardigan, Bristow from knitty, and was not feeling right about it a quarter of the way through the first sleeve so I quit and moved on to something else. I abandon about 15% of projects in the first day or two because they just don't look or feel "right."

The most important factors in a well-fitting knit are gauge, an honest, critical eye, and enough experience to know when your knitting is off.

And I totally agree with Kathy W. After a particularly fun or challenging project is done I feel depressed that I don't have it to work on anymore and it's sometimes hard to move on and get started on a new project.

Allison

I agree with you Allison, once something is started and one gets along with it, sometimes it just doesn't feel right and can't get on with it.

Yet, when a project is going along nicely and I've completed it, I feel elation and eagerly look forward to the "next" project! I had made a knitted poncho for my 3 girls and when the first one was completed it looked so lovely on her so that I couldn't wait to start on the other one. All 3 girls had different lovely colors which were fun to work with. One had a lovely pink, the other a beautiful purple and the third a delicious tangerine color. After making those 3 ponchos I felt happy and accomplished since the girls were happy with them.

trosttribe@bellsouth.net

Posted - 09/30/2007 : 04:47:32 AM

quote:Originally posted by alliwenk

I've been knitting for quite a while and I think that you learn how to sense when a project is just not going to work. Sometimes it's the pattern, sometimes the wool, etc. I recently started a cardigan, Bristow from knitty, and was not feeling right about it a quarter of the way through the first sleeve so I quit and moved on to something else. I abandon about 15% of projects in the first day or two because they just don't look or feel "right."

The most important factors in a well-fitting knit are gauge, an honest, critical eye, and enough experience to know when your knitting is off.

And I totally agree with Kathy W. After a particularly fun or challenging project is done I feel depressed that I don't have it to work on anymore and it's sometimes hard to move on and get started on a new project.

Allison

moongoddess

Posted - 09/28/2007 : 1:30:38 PM I've also knitted a sample with cheaper yarn! I was thinking that was the way to go but now I'm not sure. I've knitted the sample without knowing what I'll do with it when I'm done. Next time, I'll think that thru more carefully. Sometimes I've skipped to the sleeves after I do the back! I want to feel like I'm getting somewhere fast(er)!! I went to knitting sweaters after there are only so many people who want scarves and not multiple ones!! Right now, I have scarves knitted up from stash for charity. I'm trying socks and I've mastered the leg and foot part but I'm still working on mastering the toe area and while I have 4 socks to the toe - I haven't taken the stash yarn out of the heel area to finish the heels!! Cindy

Larjmarj

Posted - 09/28/2007 : 1:19:25 PM That was always my fear of making garments. I made my first top this year and the result? meh.....It was OK, not great. My husband assured me that it looks beautiful but I still have my doubts. Live and learn I say. I am going to attempt another garment. I sweater this time. Well see............[**]

So, yes, sometimes projects can be a let down. When that happens I try to find an instant gratification project that I know I can make beautifully to assure myself that I don't suck as a knitter.

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 4:34:33 PM Recently I finished a vest.The front looked good.The fit on the shoulders was good.The back buckled.I showed the vest to my friend who co-owns the LYS, she said that the knitting was even. The problem was not the knitting or the pattern.She asked me if I steamed the back.No.She said to steam the back to take te buckle out and it will be fine.I will be steaming the back this weekend.As for how do I feel about a finished project depending on what is...depends on what I feel when I finish a project. Sometimes I feel relief especially if the project had a lot of problems. Sometimes I am sad to see the project come to an end especially if it is one I enjoyed working on. After all the end means no more working on it..Other times I feel like I was able to contribute to society. Yes another person will have a hat in the winter, etc.Sometimes I a in awe...will you look at what I made? The cables are even and the clutch looks presentable..So it depends.KarenKaren

moongoddess

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 2:03:07 PM I've been knitting off and on for a long time and when I stick to a small project or a scarf I feel OK about the end product and if I don't I've taken projects apart and re-knit the yarn. Bigger projects, like sweaters are something else. This past year, I did take apart a sweater and re-knitted the yarn into a small lap blanket 'cuz I couldn't think of what else to do with the yarn. I have been disappointed with some of the sweaters I've tried. I think it has more to do with mastering my likes and dislikes and not relying so much on how the sweater looks on the model in the picture. I made a caplet from a L. Harding pattern that looks great on the book model but she's stick thin and on the model it's OK for the caplet to not close in the front but on a normal sized person or bigger person the front opening wide looks ridiculous - looks like super-woman stuff and a flying cape!!!! Cindy

Birdie Mom

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 10:55:39 AM Sometimes it takes me a while to realize why I feel down when a project is finished, and then I recognize PPD - post project depression. When I tackled all my UFOs and completed them, I expected to feel great, and instead I felt almost, sniff, bereft. Something had gone out of my life.

Birdie Mom

kdcrowley

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 09:31:08 AM I too knit sleeves first now.....especially if I am knitting for the little ones, as I do the bottom up seamless sweaters for them.

I just finished my Leaf Lace shawl, and it took a week before I could force myself to start the next thing...and I am jumping queue as well....but hey the sleeves for DD's sweater are done, and I cast the body on last night....Hopefully it will go quickly and I have enough yarn.

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 09:27:39 AM I'm was so sad when I finished the Cider House Rules Pullover (Interweave Knits, Fall 2000) that I knit it again and again. Yes I knit the same sweater three times. I gave one to my sister and thought I would give away the third one,but I couldn't bear to part with it.(Unfortunately, Interweave took down the picture and pattern. Charlize Theron wears it in the movie)I started by knitting a sleeve as my gauge swatch and it was perfect in Cascade 220. By the way, knitting the sleeve as swatch is the best tip I 've learned from a blog. I knit most of my sweaters sleeves first. Debra

Knotingale

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 08:55:28 AM There's two different issues here. I'm not sure which one the original question addressed. First, just being disappointed or sad that a project has ended. Second, being disatisfied with the end result. The first one, I never experience. I have a blog, and anything I knit is potential blog fodder. I'm always excited to finish something because I look forward to the process of taking pictures, posting them, writing about it, and responding to comments on it. Blogging motivates me to finish things, helps me analyze what I do and don't like about the project, yarn, pattern, etc., and rewards me for my knitting. I will admit I am a computer literate person, having spent years in that field, but I just can't say enough good things about the impact blogging has had on my knitting.On the second thing, being disatisfied with a project, I admit it is tough. I try to chalk it up to a learning experience. It may not be wearable, but making it and learning what I did wrong makes me a better knitter.

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 07:08:21 AM I often feel that end-of-project letdown, even with something as quick & simple as a dishcloth! Knitting is part of my meditation routine, so does that make me a "process knitter"? A little knitting each day keeps the blues away!

~~Jan~~

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. -- John Lennon

sandrasingh

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 05:56:35 AM If what I finish has a flaw that cannot be fixed, I discovered it too late etc, than I may be disappointed. But I do need clothes to walk the dog in so it doesn't last for long!

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 05:34:22 AM I generally like what I knit, even after finishing it. But when I'm doing the last few rows of a larger project I usually feel slightly sad that it'll be over soon. Even if it's a lace shawl with 300 repeats of the same stupid 10-stitch edging pattern that I've long since gotten really sick and tired of - when there's only 5 rows left to knit, I'm unhappy!

Posted - 09/27/2007 : 05:18:07 AM You should feel really happy to have made a dent in your stash!! I feel really proud whenever I finally finish a project, and if it fits, I am super happy!! I have a real problem with gauges! No matter what needle I knit with I get 4.5 stitches. [crazy] hahaha My stash is so big (every week-end I add to it), that when I finally make a spot to fit something else into, I am a happy camper!! Try not to be such a perfectionist. It's a handmade item, unique in its own right. Be proud of yourself!!!